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How to get information about your filesystems with the Linux command line.

The Linux command line allows a user to get good information about filesystems using the shell prompt. Here are some examples.

Print a list of all filesystems and their sizes in megabytes.

ubuntu ~ $ df -Hla -BMB
Filesystem     1MB-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
sysfs                 0MB     0MB       0MB    - /sys
proc                  0MB     0MB       0MB    - /proc
udev                516MB     1MB     516MB   1% /dev
devpts                0MB     0MB       0MB    - /dev/pts
tmpfs               105MB     1MB     104MB   1% /run
/dev/xvda1        31563MB 25670MB    4504MB  86% /
none                  1MB     0MB       1MB   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
none                  0MB     0MB       0MB    - /sys/fs/fuse/connections
none                  0MB     0MB       0MB    - /sys/kernel/debug
none                  0MB     0MB       0MB    - /sys/kernel/security
none                  6MB     0MB       6MB   0% /run/lock
none                521MB     0MB     521MB   0% /run/shm
none                105MB     0MB     105MB   0% /run/user
none                  0MB     0MB       0MB    - /sys/fs/pstore
systemd               0MB     0MB       0MB    - /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd

List all block devices in your Linux machine and their mountpoint.

ubuntu ~ $ lsblk
NAME    MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
xvda    202:0    0  30G  0 disk
└─xvda1 202:1    0  30G  0 part /

The parted utility allows a superuser to list all filesystems in a Linux system.

Just run sudo parted and then the print all command.

sudo parted
GNU Parted 2.3
Using /dev/xvda
Welcome to GNU Parted! Type 'help' to view a list of commands.
(parted) print all
Model: Xen Virtual Block Device (xvd)
Disk /dev/xvda: 32.2GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
 
Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      8225kB  32.2GB  32.2GB  primary  ext4         boot
 
 
(parted)

The fdisk command will also list all filesystems.

ubuntu ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
 
Disk /dev/xvda: 32.2 GB, 32212254720 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3916 cylinders, total 62914560 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
 
    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/xvda1   *       16065    62910539    31447237+  83  Linux

Sfdisk is a good alternative, this will display partition sizes in megabytes.

ubuntu ~ $ sudo sfdisk -l -uM
 
Disk /dev/xvda: 3916 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
Units = mebibytes of 1048576 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0
 
   Device Boot Start   End    MiB    #blocks   Id  System
/dev/xvda1   *     7+ 30718- 30711-  31447237+  83  Linux
/dev/xvda2         0      -      0          0    0  Empty
/dev/xvda3         0      -      0          0    0  Empty
/dev/xvda4         0      -      0          0    0  Empty

There is also a Python script, pydf, this will list all partitions on your hard drive.

Firstly, install this script.

sudo apt-get install pydf

Then run this script to get an idea of how much space is left on your filesystems.

ubuntu ~ $ pydf
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use%                                  Mounted on
/dev/xvda1  29G  24G 4294M 81.3 [########################......] /\

To get the UUID of a Linux filesystem, run this command and get the UUID that matches the name, such as /dev/sda1.

ubuntu ~ $ blkid
/dev/xvda1: LABEL="cloudimg-rootfs" UUID="ee515a1e-7735-4529-822f-4cc9e7632cd3" TYPE="ext4"

The output of the pydf script is the best, using a simple graph to show how much disk space is taken up. This means that it is the quickest to interpret. The output of the df -Hla -BMB command can be the hardest to interpret as it outputs so much, but I will leave it up to you which you choose to use. Linux has so many options right now it can be quite overwhelming. Just choose the option that suits you.

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